Rogue One Passes Finding Dory at 2016 Domestic Box Office

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story continued its massive run at the box office in its fifth week in theaters. Although its streak at No. 1 in the weekly box office is poised to end, with awards season contender Hidden Figures expected to take over the top spot, Rogue One has bigger aspirations in mind.

After blowing by Captain America: Civil War’s domestic box office total of about $408 million, Rogue One had its eye on Finding Dory for the No. 1 spot on the yearly box office leaderboard. The first standalone Star Wars anthology movie still has some work to do to reach the $1 billion worldwide milestone, but it can now call itself the highest-grossing movie of 2016 in the U.S.

According to data at Box Office Mojo, Rogue One earned about $3.24 million on Friday at the domestic box office, which officially pushed it past Finding Dory to become the No. 1-grossing movie of all titles that came out in the U.S. in 2016. Rogue One’s domestic total is now over $488 million, compared to $486 million for Finding Dory, which blew by Toy Story 3 to become the highest-grossing Pixar movie ever in the U.S.

It was a massive year for Disney and Buena Vista Pictures, which now owns the top three spots at the 2016 domestic box office with Rogue One, Finding Dory, and Civil War, plus six of the top-10 titles. According to Box Office Mojo, the BAFTA-nominatedRogue One played in 3,162 theaters on Friday, compared to 4,157 on every other day since its release.

With a projected $29.7 million expected for Rogue One at the weekly domestic box office, the movie remains on pace to reach $1 billion worldwide sometime in the next month. While it has little-to-no chance of catching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which at $936 million is the highest-grossing movie of all time domestically, Rogue One is still easily No. 2 in the history of the Star Wars franchise. For a standalone Star Wars movie that took plenty of risks with a wealth of new characters and settings, that’s quite an impressive accomplishment.

After a predictably huge start at the domestic box office and strong totals in several countries overseas, Rogue One is beginning to slow down. Fresh new titles, surprise hits like Hidden Figures, and disappointing performances in other countries are beginning to eat into its potential totals at the box office, which will likely slow its progression toward the $1 billion worldwide mark. It may not end up with as impressive worldwide totals as other recent blockbusters like The Force Awakens or Jurassic World, but at U.S. box offices in 2016, Rogue One rules.